Notre Dame High School
Dowanhill
Glasgow City Council
22 December 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) inspects schools in order to
let parents1, young people and the local community know
whether their school provides a good education. Inspectors also
discuss with school staff how they can improve the quality of
education.
At the beginning of the inspection, we ask the headteacher and
staff about the strengths of the school, what needs to improve,
and how they know. We use the information they give us to help
us plan what we are going to look at. During the inspection, we
go into classes and join other activities which young people are
involved in. We also gather the views of young people, parents,
staff and members of the local community. We find their views
very helpful and use them together with the other information we
have collected to arrive at our view of the quality of education.
This report tells you what we found during the inspection and the
quality of education in the school. We describe how well young
people are doing, how good the school is at helping them to learn
and how well it cares for them. We comment on how well staff,
parents and young people work together and how they go about
improving the school. We also comment on how well the school
works with other groups in the community, including services
which support young people. Finally, we focus on how well the
school is led and how staff help the school achieve its aims.
If you would like to learn more about our inspection of the school,
please visit www.hmie.gov.uk. Here you can find analyses of
questionnaire returns from young people, parents and staff, and
details about young people’s examination performance. We will
not provide questionnaire analyses where the numbers of returns
are so small that they could identify individuals. Where
applicable, you will also be able to find descriptions of good
practice in the school and a report on the learning community
surrounding the school.
1
Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to include foster carers,
residential care staff and carers who are relatives or friends.
Contents
1. The school
2. Particular strengths of the school
3. Examples of good practice
4. How well do young people learn and achieve?
5. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
6. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving their
school community?
7. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
9. What happens next?
1. The school
Notre Dame High School is a denominational school for girls which
serves the north-west of Glasgow. The roll was 788 when the
inspection was carried out in November 2009. Around three quarters
of the girls attend as a result of placing requests. Around a third of
young people have English as an additional language. Young
people’s attendance was above the national average in 2007/2008 and
continues to improve. Almost a third of young people attending are
from areas of multiple deprivation.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Outstanding ethos which nurtures and develops very well behaved,
courteous and confident young people.
•
Young people’s wide range of achievements.
•
A Catholic community of faith which embraces and celebrates the
rich diversity of cultures and faiths in the school.
•
The wide range of partners and opportunities for learning which
enhance young people’s experiences.
•
Staff’s developing approaches to implementing Curriculum for
Excellence.
•
Visionary leadership of the headteacher and senior leadership
team.
3. Examples of good practice
•
Developing the four capacities of a Curriculum for Excellence
through “The Creative Curriculum”.
•
Wider Achievement - A school approach to “Values in Action”.
•
Supporting young people at risk of missing out in their transition to
long-term training or employment.
4. How well do young people learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Young people are very enthusiastic about their learning. They enjoy
school and want to do well. They feel nurtured, safe and very well
cared for by staff. They like the ways in which the school develops
2
their health and wellbeing. Young people use information and
communications technology (ICT) often and well. They use the
Internet for research and to help them prepare presentations. This
helps them to learn better on their own. They contribute very well to
class discussions and are very good at debating. At times, young
people use “pupil logs” very effectively to identify their strengths and
needs as learners. This practice should be developed further across
the school.
Young people enjoy success in a very wide range of activities
including debating, sports, school shows, scientific and engineering
challenges. They contribute very well through voluntary and
community activities locally, nationally and internationally. For
example, through a senior citizens party, a “Hint of Pink” fundraising
event for breast cancer, volunteer work in the developing world and
with the annual pilgrimage to Lourdes. Young people’s enjoyment of
personal reading has been enhanced by meeting well known authors
and poets. A few young people make superbly creative cakes.
The school is improving young people’s attainment and their life
chances. Most young people achieve appropriate levels in
mathematics and the majority of young people achieve appropriate
levels in reading and writing. The proportion of young people
achieving these levels is increasing. For many young people this is
significant progress. The school needs to know more clearly how
young people are progressing in other areas of the curriculum. By the
end of S4, results in examinations are generally above national
averages. By the end of S6, results are also generally above national
averages. At all stages and all levels, the proportion of young people
gaining awards is much better than in other schools which serve young
people with similar needs and backgrounds. Young people with a
range of additional support needs make very good progress. The
school has improved the proportion of young people leaving for further
education, training or employment. Commendably, around a half of
young people now progress to higher education and a further quarter
progress to further education.
3
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The curriculum, which is reviewed each year, reflects the rich and
diverse range of faiths and cultures within the school. The school has
made an effective start to reviewing the development of skills in
literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing across learning. S1
courses in mathematics build well on young people’s learning at
primary school. Staff have developed courses such as the “S1/S2
Creative Curriculum” to meet the needs of young people better. This
supports the effective development of young people’s skills in English,
technology, enterprise, creativity and develops life-long skills such as
first aid. Young people enjoy the choice of activities offered, in
partnership with the Prince’s Trust, through the Award Scheme
Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN). In S5 young
people can gain important skills for life and work through courses in
child care and financial education. An S6 optional programme “Values
in Action” develops personal responsibility, perseverance and physical
fitness. All S6 young people are offered opportunities at lunchtime and
after school to ensure they also develop these skills. The school has
recently established a partnership with the Open University to deepen
young people’s learning in areas such as cardiovascular medicine.
The school should carefully review the programme for personal and
social education at S5/S6 and the time young people are benefitting
from physical education.
Young people like the wide range of highly-effective support available
to them. They work well together and support each other to achieve.
The school clearly identifies young people’s learning needs and shares
this information with all staff. Young people who are at risk of leaving
school without a positive destination are identified in S1 and
highly-effective supports are put in place at a very early stage. Staff
know the young people very well. Young people with additional
support needs, their parents and staff work together to set targets
within additional support plans. Young people are making very good
progress towards these targets. Young people with English as an
additional language (EAL) are making very effective progress.
4
Across the school, teachers should adapt more resources and
materials to better suit the needs of all learners.
5. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
Many parents choose the school for their daughter’s education.
Overall they are pleased with it. They think that reports on progress
reflect the young person well. Parents’ evenings are well supported by
translators provided by the education authority. The school
communicates with parents in a range of different languages and there
is scope to increase this further. The Parent Council is well consulted
on a range of issues and school improvements. The Archdiocese and
the Sisters of Notre Dame provide very effective chaplaincy support
and are well represented on the group which is seeking to further
develop the religious and moral ethos of the school. The school works
very well with a wide range of partners to enhance learning, for
example Cardonald and Langside colleges. It has established very
effective partnerships, including with the Prince’s Trust, staff from
Culture and Sport Glasgow and the Youth Community Support
Agency, which are making a significant difference to young people.
6. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving
their school community?
S6 support younger people by organising clubs, working with them in
classes, helping at lunchtime homework clubs and leading activities.
For example, they are leading others as the school works towards an
Eco-Schools Scotland green flag award. The headteacher is involving
young people, staff and parents very effectively in developing a new
vision, values and aims for the school. Staff at all levels are well
represented on the school improvement team. The school
improvement plan is reviewed regularly throughout the year and
revised as appropriate to ensure an impact on learners. The senior
leadership team carefully consider information about attainment and
targets areas for improvement. Most teachers think about their own
practices and try to make them better. Staff are beginning to ask for
5
young people’s views about their learning and make changes as a
result. The school continues to focus on improving learning in classes.
Commendably, the school recognises the scope to develop this and
further improve the consistency of experience for learners.
7. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
The school ethos is outstanding. Staff give a very high priority to the
nurture, inclusion, health and wellbeing of all. Staff are aware of
procedures relating to keeping young people safe. Young people are
happy, very well behaved individuals who are delighted to
acknowledge the successes and achievements of others. They are
incredibly proud of their school. The school celebrates achievements
through letters to parents, assemblies, award ceremonies, and
high-quality photographic displays of learners’ experiences. The
school has a very strong Catholic community of faith. Assemblies
provide regular opportunities for religious worship and sharing values.
There is a very rich religious and cultural diversity. Young people
enjoy celebrating other important festivals such as Ramadan and
Diwali. The school handles the very few complaints that it gets well.
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher sets a very clear direction. She shares her own
vision and values for the school very well. She provides very strong
leadership. She is very ably supported by her senior leadership team.
She knows the key strengths and qualities of her team and blends
these skills together very effectively. Depute headteachers are
responsible for many exciting and innovative developments, for
example improvements to the curriculum and professional
development for all staff. Staff at all levels lead developments in a
number of areas including literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing.
9. What happens next?
The inspection team was able to rely on the school's self-evaluation to
make its evaluations and the school agreed with these evaluations at
6
an early stage of the inspection. As a result, the inspection team was
able to change its focus during the inspection to help the school plan
to improve even more.
The school provides a very good quality of education. Therefore, we
will make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The
education authority will inform parents about the school's progress as
part of the authority’s arrangements for reporting to parents on the
quality of its school.
We have agreed the following area for improvement with the school
and education authority.
• Further improve the consistency and quality of learners’
experiences through more focused self-evaluation.
Quality indicators help schools, education authorities and inspectors to
judge what is good and what needs to be improved in the work of the
school. You can find these quality indicators in the HMIE publication
How good is our school?. Following the inspection of each school, the
Scottish Government gathers evaluations of three important quality
indicators to keep track of how well all Scottish schools are doing.
Here are the evaluations for Notre Dame High School.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
excellent
very good
very good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Elizabeth Morrison
22 December 2009
7
very good
very good
When we write reports, we use the following word scale so that our
readers can see clearly what our judgments mean.
excellent
very good
good
means
means
means
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
means
means
means
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas
for improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an
electronic copy of this report, please go to www.hmie.gov.uk.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a
different format, for example, in a translation, or if you wish to
comment about any aspect of our inspections. You can contact us
at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT,
HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business
Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
Text phone users can contact us on 01506 600 236. This is a service
for deaf users. Please do not use this number for voice calls as the
line will not connect you to a member of staff.
You can find our complaints procedure on our website
www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
Crown Copyright 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education